Barton Bites The Dust – Bristol Rovers 3-6 Imps

Two weeks ago today we pondering upon our two goal defeat to Cambridge United away from home, with some thinking we would struggle to survive. Fast forward two weeks and we are sitting a point away from the play-offs with six points from six in a week. Before this week there has been so many negatives for some, we bottled the two goal lead against Fleetwood, and for some we didn’t get what we needed on deadline day and then we lacked everything needed against Cambridge, so getting things right especially in this game was important.

Mark Kennedy kept the same team that beat Derby but with one enforced change. Tashan Oakley-Boothe came in for the in-form but now injured Ted Bishop. We also saw Captain Tom Hopper return to the bench along with Max Sanders. Matty Virtue continued in the side after an impressive full debut against Derby. Despite a return to fitness for Hopper, House rightfully kept his place in the team after his impressive performance on Tuesday night.

It didn’t take City long to get the goalscoring started, with Ben House giving City the lead in the first ten minutes. Jack Diamond created it with his direct running and we had luck on our side with the cross taking a deflection, allowing House to convert from just a few yards out. The second City goal followed quickly, a smart ball from Diamond released House on goal but the latter was pulled down for a penalty kick with the former converting it for his second of the game and second penalty of the week.

Despite an impressive opening fifteen minutes, we allowed Bristol Rovers to get back in the game. A poor piece of judgment from Regan Poole saw the ball drop over his head and run through to Aaron Collins, who rounded both Paudie O’Connor and Carl Rushworth to put the ball into an empty net. We have seen so many times this season that we are capable of defending well, we have seen it in games such as Portsmouth away and Derby at home, so it was disappointing to concede in that manner and our defensive work yesterday has seemed to overshadow our offensive work.

Rovers kept us under pressure and last year’s player of the season, Regan Poole soon made up for his errors with a great bit of defending on his own goal line. Despite all the pressure, Rovers had nothing to show for it and we threw the final punch of the half, after a defensive mistake Diamond was put through on goal and made no mistake with an exquisite finish to restore our two goal lead just before the half-time whistle.

Mark Kennedy made a change at half-time, one that he said was purely tactical. Jordon Garrick struggled to make an impact in the first half and was replaced with Charles Vernam. I liked this move by Mark personally as it showed that no one is safe, even if we are in control of a game and it showed that we have big competition for places amongst our squad. So many times last season we had nothing on the bench so poorly performing players had to stay on, hopefully this year we can keep the players fit.

The tactical switch soon turned out to be a brilliant one, Matty Virtue made it 4-1 to City after five minutes of the second half. I don’t think he got the credit he deserved but Tashan Oakley-Boothe made this goal with an excellent direct run from his own half, his deflected shot fell to Virtue, who took two attempts to put the ball into the net with a tidy finish capping his fine performance off. City fans had barely finished celebrating when we hammered home our fifth, Sorensen played a delightful ball into Diamond, he held up the ball and had all the time in the world to pick out a well placed finish into the top corner. That was the match ball for the lad and he appears only to just be getting started.

If the game finished after our fifth, I feel we wouldn’t be dwelling on the negatives, however it didn’t. The game was over but the two goals that were given away were both defended poorly. It was nice to see Ben House get his second of the game, with a brilliant finish from an acute angle, but unfortunately some of the defending overshadowed some of the great attacking work. However as some fans would say it was three points and they are right. We came into the week facing a tough Derby team at home and we performed really well and then we went on to an away game at a tough place to go. Mark clearly know the defensive issues that happened yesterday and we now have a good break (apart from the pizza cup game) until our next league game to work on that and get ready.

Jack Diamond was something else yesterday. It wasn’t just his goals but his impact on the game as a whole is so important and since he has come in we’ve had a creative spark with pace, technical skill and intelligence, something we have lacked since Jorge Grant in my opinion as much as they are different players.

We have learnt so much in the past few days, Cambridge away wasn’t our identity or the same old as some say but it was just a blip or bump in the road. We are still very much a work in progress and one that needs a few transfer windows before being a real Mark Kennedy side. We have to recognise that not every team will play without a recognised centre-half however we beat what was put in front of us on Saturday, they may have been an easier opponent to what we faced on Tuesday but it all counts for the same and that is three points.

The AllLincoln MOTM is Jack Diamond, well who else could it be?